There's much debate on the causes of climate change. Scientists, politicians and opinion leaders all take the stage to present their vision or ideas. However, cool(E)motion is not focused on the possible causes of climate change. We merely note that the climate is changing, whatever the cause. Let's now focus on what this means for the Arctic. And more specifically, what will happen to traditional culture, when hunters can't trust the ice, when seals disappear and wheater condition deteriorate?

Cool(e)motion urges those in power to focus on the cultural effects of climate changes. We seek attention for this message by creating giant sculptures on ice bergs that will float when spring comes. This way, the sculptural 'hunters' can search for new hunting grounds for people in the Arctic.

Friday, 31 July 2009

The process of making designs for the sculptures and the project logo.

I'm the type of sculptor who can think in three dimensions, a process impossible to translate on paper. Therefor I prefer to make models.

Photo left:It starts with a simple wired model inspired on several stories of Inuit friends: The hunter has to wait for hours, standing completely still at a seal airhole. As the seal shows up the hunter turns from complete silence into an explosion of force and dynamic.

Hunting in the Arctic gets tougher and tougher. The climate as well as the culture is changing very rapidly. Will it soon all disappear? This question is so hard, with no soft answers that I chose the ' hunter ' as a symbol for project cool(E)motion.

Ap paints the logo of cool(E)motion, inspired on the first project's sculpture.

The logo:

Ole Jorgen Hammeken, an Inuit friend from Uummannaq, Greenland, told me many stories about their tradition of dogsledding. On the moment they don't know when and even if the ice is strong enough to carry the sledges. An uncertain time because of climatological changes. A wire model of an Inuit leading his dogs contained so much power that I decided to make a series of sculptures in wax and cast them in bronze. The tension and powerfull action in the lines were completed by the subtile balance in the sculpture itsselve.

The first two sulptures in bronze: The sculptures truely stand on only two feet!

Transfering these sculptures in the Arctic (animation) and place them on an iceberg is the ultimate challenge. Dynamic art on a dynamic surface. Culture and Nature interrelated.

Scaling ap the projectI just finished a large series of prototypes scale 1:10( the final dimensions are 12 mtrs long, and 5 mtrs. high )